


Something Caesar

by Python07



Series: If Looks Could Kill [31]
Category: Forever (TV), The Musketeers (2014)
Genre: Crack Crossover, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Kid Fic, Richelieu is immortal, original characer death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-24
Updated: 2017-05-24
Packaged: 2018-11-04 06:15:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10985067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Python07/pseuds/Python07
Summary: The first time Lucius (Richelieu) and Gaius meet Sextus (Adam).





	Something Caesar

**Author's Note:**

> Another fic that takes place during Lucius and Sextus' first lives.

Lucius and Gaius ran around the atrium of the grand house. The two boys played Romans and Barbarians with the household slaves. They were unaware of the grown up conversations going on elsewhere. All of the family’s women including Lucius’ mother Claudia, Gaius’ mother Aurelia, aunts Julia and Ilia, assorted other cousins, and grandmother Marcia spoke in grave tones of Cornelia’s blood loss from the birth and the fever that refused to leave her. There were fewer men in the family, but among them were the great Gaius Marius, Sulla, Gaius Caesar the elder, and close friends. They were more concerned who would administer the combined estates of the late Sextus Caesar and Drusus Cornelius and take in the newborn boy.

The boys didn’t notice their mothers watching them, stern and sad. Lucius was the taller of the two. He had a head of unruly brown curls and bright blue eyes. Gaius had the white blonde hair of the Caesars but the same eyes. Marius always said that both of them were intelligent and mature for their ten years except when they were together, which was almost always.

Lucius was the first to notice the scrutiny. He froze and Gaius plowed into him from behind. They fell down in a tangle of limbs, giggling. They made no move to get up, instead playfully shoving each other.

Claudia made it to them first. She grabbed one of Lucius’ arms and one of Gaius’. She pulled them up. She kept her grip on Lucius, firm and just shy of painful. “Enough of this.”

Aurelia was only a step behind. She clamped a hand on Gaius’ shoulder. She dug her fingers in. She was stone faced and solemn. “Keep it down before you disturb the rest of the house.”

They both bowed their heads and shifted their feet. Lucius found the courage to speak first what they were both thinking. “Can we see Aunt Cornelia?”

Claudia pressed her lips into a thin line for a moment before she nodded reluctantly. “She’s asked to see you both.”

Aurelia started steering Gaius out of the atrium to the main bed chamber. “Behave and don’t tire her out.”

Claudia followed, never letting go of Lucius. She squeezed his arm. “Be quiet and respectful. She’s very sick.”

Gaius glanced over his shoulder at Lucius and again Lucius was the one to find the courage to speak. “Will she be all right?”

Claudia looked down at him. Her Patrician mask didn’t crack, except for something sad and resigned in her eyes. “That’s up to the gods now.”

“And their will is just,” Aurelia added.

“Mother,” Gaius started but stopped helplessly.

“Hush,” Aurelia whispered harshly as they stopped at the door. She knocked softly and opened it a couple inches. “We have the boys. Are you sure about this Cornelia?”

Cornelia’s voice was tired and weary. “Yes, please Aurelia. Let them in and shut the door.”

“Very well.” Aurelia nodded briskly and shoved Gaius into the room. 

“Quiet and respectful,” Claudia repeated and did the same to Lucius. She pulled the door shut.

Both boys jumped. They shifted by the door, scared and unsure. They looked at their feet more than at Cornelia.

Cornelia was propped up on pillows in her bed. Her skin had a ghastly pallor and her once lustrous dark hair hung limply against her shoulders. Her sunken eyes burned bright with the fever. Her smile was sickly but kind. “Lucius, Gaius, come closer. I want to see you.”

They looked at each other and took a deep breath at the same time. They slowly and cautiously approached the bed. They stood at her side, still, eyes downcast.

Cornelia struggled but managed to sit forward. She chucked them both under the chin. “Stop that.”

They finally looked at her, openly curious and worried.

“We have to behave,” Gaius protested.

“And be quiet,” Lucius added.

Cornelia caressed both of their cheeks before she sank back against the pillows again. She let out an exhausted sigh and it took her a moment to catch her breath. “No, you are to be your normal bright selves. You’ll have plenty of time to be stern and serious later.” She patted the sides of the bed next to her. “Come, sit next to me.”

They traded a brief look before Gaius sat next to her. Lucius hurried around the bed and sat on her other side. “Is there anything we can do?” they asked at the same time.

Cornelia huffed a laugh. She reached out to cover one of their hands with her own. “Thank you, but I am beyond help.”

They each pulled a flat, heavily wrapped packet from his tunic and set it in her lap. Gaius grinned. “We brought you something.”

Lucius did too. “From Lentulus’ bakery.”

Cornelia’s hands shook as she unwrapped the sweet pastries. They appeared to be a bit smashed but more than edible. She laughed and broke a corner off one of them and popped it in her mouth. She hummed in appreciation. “I thought you two are banned from his shop.”

Gaius nodded. “We are.”

Cornelia ate another small bit of pastry before she rewrapped them and nodded to Gaius to put them on the stand next to her bed. “Very good, but I’m afraid I have no appetite. How did you get them?”

Lucius puffed his chest out a little. “I distracted him while Gaius went in to get them.”

Cornelia’s eyes got wide. “What do you mean, distracted him?”

Gaius snickered. “It means Lentulus chased him around the store and down the street with a broom.”

Lucius stuck his nose up in the air. “He didn’t come close to catching me.”

Gaius beamed in admiration. “When he came to the door, Mother said he had no right to chase Lucius any further than out of his shop. Then she said he was lucky that she wasn’t dragging him before the magistrate for attempting to harm her nephew. She also said that he didn’t have to worry about any business from our family or any of her tenants. Then she shut the door in his face.”

Cornelia laughed so hard she started coughing. She squeezed both of their hands to keep them still until she caught her breath. Her red eyes watered but she still had a fond glint in them for both boys.

Gaius rubbed her back. He fluffed the pillows behind her. He helped her to get settled.

Lucius only moved to pour her a glass of water from a pitcher on a nearby stand. He held her hand around the glass to help her drink.

Cornelia managed a few swallows before she pushed the glass away. She wheezed for a few more moments before she caught her breath. She offered a weak, grateful smile. “You are good boys. Remember that even when your mothers have to be hard on you. They have to prepare you to take your places. Oh, how I wish I could see the men you two grow into. You will go far. Promise me that you will always take care of each other.”

“We promise,” they chorused without hesitation.

Cornelia briefly touched both of their faces again. Then she nodded to the basinet standing a few feet from the foot of her bed. “Go look at him. My boy, my Sextus.” 

Lucius and Gaius stared down at the sleeping little red thing with the scrunched up face. It also smelled strange. 

Cornelia’s voice was barely above a whisper. “Will you take care of him? Will you tell him of me?”

Sextus woke up and looked at them. He didn’t cry. He watched them curiously. He didn’t have the same blue eyes. He had the dark brown eyes of his mother. Still, there was something there, something Caesar.

They glanced at each other. Gaius nodded while Lucius answered solemnly, “We will.”

Cornelia put her head back and shut her eyes. All of the tension left her body. She let go of all her pain. “Then,” she breathed, short and low. “I give him to you.”


End file.
